Pooling of network processing resources

Abstract

Examples described herein relate to a switch configured to allocate packet processing resources, from a pool of packet processing resources, to multiple applications, wherein the pool of packet processing resources comprise configurable packet processing pipelines of one or more network devices and packet processing resources of one or more servers. In some examples, the configurable packet processing pipelines and the packet processing resources are to perform one or more of: network switch operations, microservice communications, and/or block storage operations. In some examples, the network switch operations comprise one or more of: application of at least one access control list (ACL), packet forwarding, packet routing, and/or Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN) or GENEVE termination. In some examples, the microservice communications comprise one or more of: packet routing between microservices and/or load balancing of utilized microservices.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. An apparatus for use in association with one or more servers, the one or more servers being configurable to comprise a switch server and a compute server, the apparatus comprising:
 a switch configured to allocate packet processing resources, from a pool of packet processing resources, to multiple applications, wherein the pool of packet processing resources comprises configurable packet processing pipelines of one or more network devices and packet processing resources of the one or more servers; 
 wherein:
 the switch is to be comprised in a switch server and comprises one or more packet processing pipelines of the packet processing pipelines; 
 the one or more network devices and the packet processing resources of the one or more servers are to be comprised, at least in part, in the compute server; 
 the one or more network devices and/or the packet processing resources comprise one or more other packet processing pipelines of the packet processing pipelines; and 
 the one or more packet processing pipelines comprised in the switch are to provide programmable configuration data to modify match-action table data of the one or more other packet processing pipelines to program, at least in part, the one or more network devices and/or the packet processing resources of the one or more servers to implement, at least in part, capability negotiation. 
 
 
     
     
       2. The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the configurable packet processing pipelines and the packet processing resources are to perform one or more of: network switch operations, microservice communications, and/or block storage operations. 
     
     
       3. The apparatus of  claim 2 , wherein the network switch operations comprise one or more of: application of at least one access control list (ACL), packet forwarding, packet routing, and/or Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN) or GENEVE termination. 
     
     
       4. The apparatus of  claim 2 , wherein the microservice communications comprise one or more of: packet routing between microservices and/or load balancing of utilized microservices. 
     
     
       5. The apparatus of  claim 2 , wherein the block storage operations comprise one or more of: storage packet forwarding and/or distributed storage path selection. 
     
     
       6. The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the switch is to configure the configurable packet processing pipelines of the one or more network devices by issuance of data plane programming software that is consistent with Programming Protocol-Independent Packet Processors (P4), C, Python, Network Programming Language (NPL), and/or comprises executable binaries. 
     
     
       7. The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the packet processing resources of the one or more servers are to perform a virtual network function (VNF). 
     
     
       8. The apparatus of  claim 1 , comprising:
 the one or more servers, wherein at least one of the one or more servers is to execute at least one application of the multiple applications to access the allocated packet processing resources using Application Owned Networking (AON) and Open vSwitch. 
 
     
     
       9. The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more network devices comprise one or more of: a network interface controller (NIC), a switch, and/or an infrastructure processing unit (IPU). 
     
     
       10. A method comprising:
 allocating, using a switch, packet processing resources, from a pool of packet processing resources, to multiple applications, wherein the pool of packet processing resources comprises configurable packet processing pipelines of one or more network devices and packet processing resources of one or more servers; 
 wherein:
 the one or more servers are configurable to comprise a switch server and a compute server; 
 the switch is to be comprised in a switch server and comprises one or more packet processing pipelines of the packet processing pipelines; 
 the one or more network devices and the packet processing resources of the one or more servers are to be comprised, at least in part, in the compute server; 
 the one or more network devices and/or the packet processing resources of the one or more servers comprise one or more other packet processing pipelines of the packet processing pipelines; and 
 the one or more packet processing pipelines comprised in the switch are to provide programmable configuration data to modify match-action table data of the one or more other packet processing pipelines to program, at least in part, the one or more network devices and/or the packet processing resources of the one or more servers to implement, at least in part, capability negotiation. 
 
 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 10 , wherein the configurable packet processing pipelines perform one or more of: network switch operations, microservice communications, and/or block storage operations. 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 11 , wherein the network switch operations comprise one or more of: application of at least one access control list (ACL), packet forwarding, packet routing, and/or Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN) termination. 
     
     
       13. The method of  claim 11 , wherein the microservice communications comprise one or more of: packet routing between microservices and/or load balancing of utilized microservices. 
     
     
       14. The method of  claim 11 , wherein the block storage operations comprise one or more of: storage packet forwarding and/or distributed storage path selection. 
     
     
       15. The method of  claim 10 , comprising:
 configuring the packet processing resources using data plane programming software. 
 
     
     
       16. The method of  claim 15 , wherein the data plane programming software is consistent with Programming Protocol-Independent Packet Processors (P4), C, Python, Network Programming Language (NPL), and/or comprises executable binaries. 
     
     
       17. The method of  claim 15 , wherein the data plane programming software configures match-action entries of the packet processing resources. 
     
     
       18. The method of  claim 10 , wherein the packet processing resources of the one or more servers are to perform a virtual network function (VNF). 
     
     
       19. The method of  claim 10 , wherein the one or more network devices comprise one or more of: a network interface controller (NIC), a switch, and/or an infrastructure processing unit (IPU). 
     
     
       20. The method of  claim 10 , wherein:
 at least one application of the multiple applications is to access the provided packet processing resources using Application Owned Networking (AON) and Open vSwitch.